Back From Break Open Closed

Illowy bounced on the balls of her feet as she waited for her cousin to show up. Auntie had promised that he would meet up with her at the platform so they might ride back to school together, but the boy was no where to be found. As per usual. Ever since the sorting ceremony he seemed to be constantly avoiding her. Probably pouting that I got Slytherin and he didn't, she thought to herself. Kyle had always wanted Slytherin like his parents before him, and she'd had her heart set on Ravenclaw, her mother's house.

In the end, they both got the exact opposite of what they wanted.

The girl did hate that it seemed to hurt their relationship, though. Even if the pair were more like sparring partners for various fights and disagreements, they still cared about each other and had each other's backs. He'd just been so distant this year, and he wouldn't just let her into his world. They'd never had a problem talking before, so what in the world was stopping them now aside from silly house assignments?

Illowy pulled her hood further forward, trying to shield her wind burned cheeks as she looked around for him, "Whatever... he can walk to Hogwarts for all I care." she decided, throwing her backpack over her shoulder and picking up her violin case before stepping onto the train. She wasn't just going to stand there in the tundra for forever.

Wandering from compartment to compartment, the child finally stopped when she found a less occupied compartment; having only one other person in it. A girl with bright red hair, "Can I sit here?" she asked. Usually she'd rather traipse up and down the aisle until she found an empty compartment, but she was freezing and just wanted to curl up and thaw herself out from the wind.

Amaya walked to the train, her parents waving at her from behind. Maybe it did make her a bit embarrassed that her parents did that, but it also made her happy, at-least they cared enough to do it. She smiled, and waved back before hopping onto the train. People were crowding the train, and she kind of pushed through some people, looking for a not-full compartment. Every time she had to push through people she mumbled an apology, and she got pushed down a few times. The hall was now clear, and the train had started moving, but she still hadn't found somewhere to sit. She saw another student standing in the doorway of one, and she awkwardly walked over. She shivered, and zipped her coat higher. She stepped beside her, and glanced into the compartment. She saw it was almost empty and mumbled "Um... sorry but, could I sit here..?" she felt like she sounded stupid, but she already asked it So much for first impressions...  "A-all the other compartments are full.." She quietly mumbled, and now she really sounded dumb. She hoped they would let her in, she really didn't feel like sitting in the cold train hall on the trip back to Hogwarts.

Lallie was in the middle of reading about how the why humans are afraid of the unknown when she hears the compartment door open. She looked up from her book to see a dark-haired girl standing there. "Can I sit here?" the girl asked. "Sure," she said before seeing a brown-haired girl walk up next to her. The new girl asked the same question as the first girl except more shyly and Lallie said, "Sure" to that girl too. She watched as the girls took their seats before folding the corner of the page she was on, closing it, and setting it on the table.

She began looking out the window to see the train slowly pulling out of the station. She really wished her brother had come down from Scotland to say goodbye. When Lallie was leaving for Hogwarts the first time she remembered looking out the window to see him running with the train waving goodbye. The thought made her smile. Her brother may be nineteen, but he still acted like a goof a lot. Now looking out the window all she could see were several little kids doing what her brother was doing a couple of months ago.

She was glad she didn't look out the window earlier to see if her father was still there. She didn't want to look out and be disappointed to look out and see he left the station. She assumed he stayed until the train took off, but deep down she knew that wasn't true.

Amaya shyly smiled, and took her seat. She sat her many quills and pieces of parchment closely beside her, and looked up at both the other girls. Should I try to make conversation? She shook off the thought. She was feeling kind of awkward, and really didn't want to talk to anyone right now. She was in the mood for writing a good story. She pulled an empty piece of parchment and a quill over to her, and tried to think if something to write. She really didn't want anyone reading over her shoulder, and judging her so she decided to write something not-so dark. She tapped her quill on the paper What too write about? and it made an ink spot. It bled through the paper, and onto the seat, and she quickly wiped it off with the back of her hand. She really hoped no-one was talking to her, because she kind-of blocked out all noise around her. She pressed her quill to the paper again, and started writing. A good magic story she thought to herself, this is the stories she was really good at writing. Dragons and wizards, was what she loved to write about, and soon half of the parchment held her writing. She never really showed anyone her writing, and was very awkward about it with these people around her, and she tried to kind-of hide it behind her arm. Now it would seem like she was hiding something, and she felt even more awkward, and hoped not to talk about it.

When the other girl granted her a seat, she gladly tossed her bag up into the luggage shelf above and sat opposite to girl, next to the window and sat her violin case beside herself. The She was in the midst of stripping off her winter wear when another girl appeared in the door, coming to join them.

Fantastic, she thought, hoping this trip would be a quiet one. Illowy pulled out a small book from her coat pocket to read, though she quickly lost focus when she heard one of the girls tapping her quill against the crisp parchment, “Could you not?” She asked, though the other seemed totally oblivious.

What on earth could she possibly feel the need to concentrate so hard on? Did she forget to finish some homework or something? Illowy passed an icy glance towards the other girl, wondering if she was finding the action as annoying as she did herself.

Other strange girl trying to write seemed to hear nothing of what was being said to her as she tried to wipe away a bit of ink that had bled through the parchment. At least the tapping had stopped. Illowy hoped it would stay that way as she made herself comfortable once more for the long train ride.

She started sketching someone riding a dragon on the other half of the page, feeling even more self conscious of her art than her writing.  She faced her back to the girl, and continued writing. She then realized she must seem very rude, and she faced the girl "S-sorry.. um..." What can I say..? "I just don't like people seeing my art..." That sounds weird.... I feel so awkward... "i-i'm not trying to be rude.." she mumbled. She rolled up her pieces of parchment, and grabbed her quills, and put it with her luggage. She reached up and put her luggage on the rack, and sat back down. She should probably should talk to them, but what should she even talk about? Maybe Hogwarts? "U-uhm... well, i'm Amaya.." She muttered. She might of heard me She looked over at her and shyly smiled. She wasn't good at talking to people. She was just shy and awkward. "So... erm.." Conversation starters.. uh... what to talk about..? "what do you think about Hogwarts..?" That's a really dumb question! She felt like a real idiot. 'What do you think about Hogwarts?' of all dumb questions to ask. She would really be happy when this ride was over.

Lallie stopped looking at the white, snowy landscape and turned her attention to the girls across from her. The brown-haired girl was currently pulling out a quill, ink, and parchment paper. She looked at her curiously wondering what exactly she was planning on writing. 'Last minute homework maybe?' she thought.

She then looked at the dark-haired girl who was currently reading something. One thing she could tell with these girls is that, like her, they didn't really want to strike up much conversation. She was completely fine with that, it was much better than her experience on the train on the first day of school. Lallie thought back to that one extroverted girl she sat with that said some rude comments about Muggle-borns to a Muggle-born oblivious to that fact.

Opening her book she continues reading on Muggle philosophy. She looked up from her book shortly after at the sound of the dark-haired girl's voice. She found the dark-haired girl giving a cold glance at the brunette. Turning to the brunette she saw her tapping on her parchment paper. 'I guess it is slightly annoying.' Lallie thought trying to read her book again.

The brunette started talking and Lallie looked up from her book. She felt bad when she rolled up her parchment paper, we were all doing our own thing so it was kind of sad she stopped doing hers. She half-smiled when Amaya tried to start a conversation. Lallie knew how Amaya was feeling, trying awkwardly to start a conversation.

"Nice to meet you, Amaya, I'm Lallie," she said. She may have not liked starting conversations, but if someone was trying to start one up, she felt obligated to continue it.

"Hogwarts has been great so far. I don't think I've seen you before so you must be from a different house. I'm from Gryffindor, what about you?" she asked making sure to keep her voice down in case the dark-haired girl wasn't really inclined to talk.

Truthfully, it hadn't been the scrapping of the quill that bothered Illowy, it had simply been the tapping. Plenty of tests and quiet work time in class had desensitized her to the sound of quills scrapping paper. The tapping might as well have been the equivalent of someone clicking their pen back and forth incessantly. She paid no mind when the girl finally rolled up whatever it had been that she was working on, hoping she'd take a note from herself and the Gryffindor to just sit and quietly read.

To her dismay, she saw the red haired girl close her book as the Ravenclaw, Amaya was apparently her name, decided to strike up possibly the weakest conversation she'd heard all year. Lallie, the Gryffindor, chose to take up the other's offer of conversation. At least she could take a social queue and keep her voice down. Not the it mattered; while Illowy's eyes might've been faithfully attatched to her book, she was practically reading the same page over and over as she listened to the pair.

She'd learned quick enough by this point in the year that few people outside of her own house had interest in talking to her, and anyone who did tended to turn fairly quickly on her on the simple fact that she was a Slytherin the moment she disagreed with something being said. That was just the way of it since the war, she figured. After all, He Who Shall Not Be Named certainly had all but obliterated her house's reputation.

For a moment, the girl's eyes flickered away from the page and back and forth between the pair, not so much in a judging way, but more so to try to place their faces and figure if she'd seen either of them in any classes. They certainly appeared to be a first years like herself.

She was glad Lallie had pulled her out of this awkward situation "I'm a Ravenclaw. Its really nice to meet you too!" Lallie seemed kind, right? She had always grown up an only-child, with no siblings to talk to, and she felt it awkward to try to talk to her parents about problems, or friends. Her parents always seemed open to the thought, though. She wondered what house the other girl was in, maybe they could all be friends? She didn't really want to disturb her though, as it seemed she kind of wanted to be left alone. It made sense Lallie was a Gryffindor. She seemed so nice and brave. Starting conversations, at-least for Amaya, was the most fearful thing. It wasn't really fear though, mostly her shy-ness, and the fear of her saying the wrong thing and losing a friend. She wasn't the best at saying the right thing. She often tried to make jokes, and offended people, so she soon learned making jokes wasn't the best idea for conversations. She had tried talking about magic, though she had some muggle friends, and most of her friends from back home knew a-lot more than she did, so the conversations were always awkward. She just wasn't an outgoing, social person. She liked to keep to herself and write and draw. It took her mind off of things for a while.